Huo Shiran could still feel the person in his arms struggling restlessly. The flicker of desire stirred by her delicate beauty after shedding her elaborate bridal attire—and by the slender waist that fit so easily beneath his hand was gradually replaced by a sense of frustration and irritation at having his attention so thoroughly rejected.
When had Young Master Huo ever suffered such humiliation in front of a woman?
And especially from this particular woman—the sworn enemy he had been bickering and fighting with since childhood! She was already his wife, so why was she still resisting him so fiercely?
A surge of anger, mixed with his young master’s pride, rushed straight to his head.
He suddenly released the arm around her waist as though he had been burned, even pushing her back slightly in a fit of pique.
Trying to salvage what remained of his wounded masculine pride, a harsh remark slipped out before he could think better of it.
“Lu Jiaojiao, do you really think I’m so eager to touch you?”
He deliberately lifted his chin. With a critical, disdainful look that was clearly forced, he swept his gaze over her from head to toe, his tone turning sharp.
“Look at you. Do you have even the slightest bit of the gentleness and dignity expected of a noble young lady? All day long, you talk about fighting and killing. Your temper is fiercer than a man’s! You’re hardly accomplished in the four arts of music, chess, calligraphy, and painting, yet when it comes to arguing back and throwing punches, you excel at every one of them! What respectable young lady in the capital behaves like you?”
The more he spoke, the more justified he felt, as though he were pouring out every grievance he had ever had about this marriage. His words became increasingly cutting.
“Let me tell you—I wasn’t willing to marry you either! Now that I’ve married you, I’ll truly become the laughingstock of the capital! Other men marry wives to find virtue and unite two families. Me? I’ve brought home an ancestor to worship—and an unreasonable one at that!”
His final words landed heavily, carrying a tone of lofty accusation.
“You only know how to throw tantrums and go on hunger strikes because you refuse this marriage. But have you ever spared even a thought for your Lu family? If you truly anger the imperial family and punishment falls upon you, what will your parents and siblings do then? You’re so oblivious to the bigger picture, so careless of your maternal family and you still dare call yourself a daughter of a marquis’s household?”
The moment the words left his mouth, even Huo Shiran froze slightly.
A faint unease stirred within him.
Those words had been a little too harsh.
The reasoning itself was not entirely wrong, but things were hardly as serious as he had made them sound.
Yet pride and anger compelled him to maintain that cold, critical expression.
He had expected her to explode in rage. He expected her to fire back and call him, Huo Shiran, nothing more than a reckless brute that the two of them were no better than each other.
But at that moment, every movement Lu Jiaojiao made suddenly stopped.
It was as though she had fallen into an icy abyss.
Her entire body stiffened on the bed, and the color instantly drained from her face.
The lively brilliance that usually filled her eyes vanished, leaving behind only a hollow, lifeless emptiness.
Every word he had spoken became a poisoned thorn, piercing precisely the place where she was most vulnerable—
her family.
Yes… What have I been doing?
A cold voice exploded inside her mind.
She had been so consumed by her own resentment and unwillingness, causing chaos within the household. But had she ever stopped to consider what kind of disaster might befall her father and brothers if news of her resistance to the marriage reached the palace?
The words “oblivious to the bigger picture, careless of your maternal family” struck her like a heavy hammer, brutally jolting her awake.
Her mother’s tearful instructions.
Her father’s deeply furrowed brow…
She had always believed that she was fighting against her fate, yet she had never seriously considered that the price of her resistance might have to be borne by her entire family.
Besides…
She was already married.
The bridal sedan chair had carried her into the Huo residence. She had already drunk the nuptial wine. Her status as his wife had been established.
How could a bride refuse her husband on their wedding night?
If word got out, what would become of the Lu family’s reputation?
She and Huo Shiran were no longer what they had once been to each other.
Now, in a sense, even he stood above her.
I’ve been too willful.
The realization came crashing down upon her like a mountain.
It crushed all her anger and resentment into cold regret and silence.
When Huo Shiran saw the color vanish from her face and the emptiness in her eyes, his anger was quickly replaced by panic.
He opened his mouth. All the explanations and arguments he had prepared circled in his throat.
“Is your mouth all right?”
In the end, however, that was what came out.
He stepped forward and, almost naturally, reached out. His warm fingertips gently supported her chin, lifting her face.
Two clear tears suddenly slipped down her cheeks without warning.
They landed squarely on the back of his hand.
Hot.
Huo Shiran froze.
The warmth of those tears made his heart tighten sharply.
It felt as though the skin beneath his palm had been scalded numb. Every explanation he had prepared, every trace of his temper, was washed away in an instant by those two silent tears.
All that remained was boundless panic—
and regret.
He rarely saw her cry.
The Lu Jiaojiao in his memories was someone who, even as a child, would fall from a horse on the training grounds and be covered in bruises. Even when her knees were scraped open and bleeding, she would grit her teeth.
Her eyes might turn completely red, but she stubbornly refused to let a single tear fall.
She would lift her chin and insist,
“I’m fine.”
But now…
He had truly frightened her.
The Lu Jiaojiao before him had eyes as empty as a stagnant pool. Her already slender figure looked even more fragile beneath the loose nightclothes.
Under the candlelight, her fair little face was completely devoid of color. There was still a faint mark on her lips from where she had accidentally hurt herself earlier.
She looked like a small animal that had been frightened beyond its limits, her entire body tense, every part of her filled with fear and helplessness.
When she saw him approach, she suddenly trembled as though she had been burned.
In a panic, she tried to rise from the edge of the bed and move away from him.
Completely forgetting that, in her stubborn anger, she had gone an entire day without food or water.
The moment she stood, the room began spinning.
A powerful wave of dizziness struck her. She gave a soft groan, and her body went limp as she swayed to one side.
Huo Shiran’s heart clenched.
Almost instinctively, he stretched out an arm and caught her securely, pulling her into his embrace.
The startling lightness of her weight brought another sharp ache to his heart.
Why is she so light?